Browse some recent Origin Reviews.
John Stowell | Michael Zilber - Live Beauty
by Chris Lunn, Ancient Victorys
Stowell's inventive, warm approach to the guitar with a delicate touch meets Zilber, whit his big saxophone sound and edgy intensity. They have found a musical vocabulary across the past decade in duo, trio and quartet formats. This is their second quartet undertaking and was recorded live at the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley, California. They are joined by the large warm sometimes rumbling bass work of John Shifflett and the... read more
Ray Vega & Thomas Marriott - East-West Trumpet Summit
by Jeff Krow, Audiophile Audition
Trumpet blow-offs, like harmonica cutting sessions, many times are unsuccessful as they can be exercises in ego inflation. Dating back to the 1950s there has been an impression that when East coast players meet their Western counterparts, the East coast horn players blow hot and the Left coast brass players blow in a cooler vein. It's kind of like comparing Chet Baker to Roy Eldridge. As traveling between the coasts became much more common these... read more
John Stowell | Ulf Bandgren Quartet - Night Visitor
by Dave Rogers, WTJU - Richmond
Guitarists John Sowell and Ulf Bandgren last recorded together five years ago, but they renew their wonderful interplay and compatibility as if there has been no time gap. Larry Coryell further amplifies, "John Stowell plays jazz, but he doesn't use any of the cliches; he has an incredible originality. John is a master creator." The performance is enhanced even more by the rhythm section: Bruno Raberg (bass, composed four songs on this disc) and... read more
Shawn Purcell - Oblivity
by Pete Prown, Vintage Guitar Magazine
With burnin' bop, ballad, and fusion, this album crackles with life - and superb musicianship. Purcell threads the needle well, staying traditional but also pushing jazz boundaries with guitar effects and synth sounds ("Quiet the Chaos"). "Verdigris" is straight-ahead bop with complex guitar phrases that are spellbinding, while "Gentle Giant" offers a slow ballad with Shawn's melodic and masterful... read more
Hal Galper - Trip the Light Fantastic
by George Fendel, Jazz Society of Oregon
I'm really delighted to see Galper return to a straight ahead orientation on a fresh, buoyant new release. Working with Seattle veterans Jeff Johnson, bass, and John Bishop, drums, Galper makes it clear that this is going to be a brisk outing from note one. And that first note brings in "Alice In Wonderland." But this version, as opposed to most others, leaves no prisoners, as Galper and company go for broke. Having gotten out of the gate in a... read more
Hal Galper Trio - Invitation to Openness
by Chris Spector, Midwest Record
Originally a 2008 radio concert, when Galper was entering the final phase of his long career that's still in motion, he unleashed his piano into a kind of free jazz where he was improvising on composed music as the urge struck him in each different moment. Proceeding on a full blown busman's holiday of letting the whims blow where they will, it's just a gasser to hear a geezer move way beyond the boundaries without a care in the world. Purely... read more
Metropolitan Jazz Octet - The Bowie Project
by Chris Baber, Jazz Views (UK)
Having recently pondered the ways in which Bowie's music related to jazz, it was a pleasure to receive this CD to review. Immediately, you are struck by the mixture of songs that the octet has chosen. There are, of course, well known tunes such as 'Changes' (track 3), 'Let's dance' (track 6), 'Life on Mars' (track 11), but also a host of tracks from albums across Bowie's career. This suggests to me that this is clearly a project developed... read more
Laurie Antonioli - Songs of Shadow, Songs of Light
by Raul da Gama, Jazz da Gama
Attempting to play the repertoire of Thelonious Monk or Herbie Nichols is notoriously difficult. Here is the conundrum: Unless the music is recreated, while staying true to the original; made wholly new, there is a tendency to copy style and content. And then the attempt falls flat with mediocrity. There is that small matter of the stylistic idiosyncrasy of the artists in question. The angular, chopped rhythms of Mr. Monk and the maddeningly... read more
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